CARLYLE - In early 2023, Monica Foord – Frank and Elsie Faber’s oldest daughter – was thinking it would be a great idea to hold a Faber family reunion this summer.
After several months of planning and preparation, the reunion was held the weekend of July 28-30 with 100 people in attendance. All of the activities were held at Carlyle’s Lions Park at the pavilion that is a wonderful place to host such an event.
The Friday night started off with a barbecue and meet and greet with everyone so happy to see each other. Lots of “I haven’t seen you for ages” with hugs and handshakes.
Saturday activities started with a light lunch served at noon and a bocce ball tournament with 24 teams of two players each. Teams were drawn up out of the hat so everyone mixed with others and it was a great success. In the end Jolene Faber and Mercedes Irwin were victorious, beating out Devin Faber and Kirstin Lucus in the final.
The youngsters enjoyed a bouncy castle for the afternoon provided by Cory and Michelle Irwin.
We were fortunate to have three of our second cousins and their husbands make the trip to Carlyle all the way from Iowa. Their father was also John Faber and Henry Faber was their grandfather who was a brother to Louis Faber. (Lou Faber was father of Matt, John and Melvin Faber).
Frank kept them busy touring the area and set up a picture display with old pictures of relatives and the old homesteads. Amazing how some of our offspring look like our ancestors.
We had a delicious catered supper on the Saturday evening with birthday cake for Lorraine Pho, celebrating her 81st birthday.
A silent auction was held to raise some funds for reunion expenses. All donations were to be handmade items. It was a great success with over 35 items donated and purchased by various family members.
We have many talented people in our family making a variety of beautiful things. After supper, the silent auction winners were announced. Several other prizes and gifts were given out for furthest away, oldest, youngest, etc., and thank-you gifts were presented to Monica and Shelley for their work organizing the event.
On the Sunday morning, a pancake breakfast was served that was enjoyed by approximately 80 people. The Pie Man Dennis Feduk donated a beautiful lemon pie to our reunion that was drawn for and won by Sandi Routley, Reg Faber’s daughter. Thank you Dennis for the pie as well as your help with the grill on the weekend.
The reunion drew to a close about noon on Sunday with people packing up to head home after a fun-filled weekend and lots of questions about when we will be having the next one.
